The offense is a "forfeiture" rather than a "crime", meaning the government does not have to prove its case to a jury of human beings who just might think he is a hero. Instead the defendant in an administrative forfeiture action is asked to prove he is innocent.

kronicfeld:Honest Bender: By that same irrational logic, I'm sure the harm he did by blocking all those very important emergency calls was completely offset by all the fatal car accidents he prevented.

It's amazing our species survived before the invention of the mobile phone. All those people dying on the side of the road because they couldn't summon a tow truck, or because the only IT guy who knows how to reset the server was at the cinema.

Wellon Dowd:It's amazing our species survived before the invention of the mobile phone. All those people dying on the side of the road because they couldn't summon a tow truck, or because the only IT guy who knows how to reset the server was at the cinema.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us the physics are all wrong and it's not possible to do what this guy was doing... but if we had read the original specs in German we would have known that already.

Click Click D'oh:I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us the physics are all wrong and it's not possible to do what this guy was doing... but if we had read the original specs in German we would have known that already.

It wouldn work in a moving car. If he was driving at relativistic speeds the jaming signal would red shift and out of the needed radio frequency band.

Click Click D'oh:I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us the physics are all wrong and it's not possible to do what this guy was doing... but if we had read the original specs in German we would have known that already.

Walker:I need one of those on the rare occasion that I go to see a movie. Annoying people texting and playing on their phones during the movie is why it's a rare occasion for me.

I've seen someone claim to use one here for that reason. That was ten years ago so hopefully he's stopped or been caught. Yeah the people in the theater are annoying but it's not your place to interrupt service in case of emergency. Especially since you'll effect far more people outside the theater than inside.

Walker:I need one of those on the rare occasion that I go to see a movie. Annoying people texting and playing on their phones during the movie is why it's a rare occasion for me.

Yeah because I need cellular access to play games on a phone. How about you stop looking at other people and WATCH THE farkING MOVIE! Last movie I went to the volume was so loud I thought my ears were going to bleed, my 4 year old son was holding his hands to his ears. We got up got our money back and left.

It's amazing our species survived before the invention of the mobile phone. All those people dying on the side of the road because they couldn't summon a tow truck, or because the only IT guy who knows how to reset the server was at the cinema.

Because the call wouldn't drop and they couldn't call right back when the man drove past, their phones would explode, killing hundreds, nay, thousands.

It's amazing our species survived before the invention of the mobile phone. All those people dying on the side of the road because they couldn't summon a tow truck, or because the only IT guy who knows how to reset the server was at the cinema.

Because the call wouldn't drop and they couldn't call right back when the man drove past, their phones would explode, killing hundreds, nay, thousands.

Learn to science

I'm glad you are on board with vigilante justice. This is just a douche who thinks he better than everyone else.

It's amazing our species survived before the invention of the mobile phone. All those people dying on the side of the road because they couldn't summon a tow truck, or because the only IT guy who knows how to reset the server was at the cinema.

Because the call wouldn't drop and they couldn't call right back when the man drove past, their phones would explode, killing hundreds, nay, thousands.

Learn to science

I'm glad you are on board with vigilante justice. This is just a douche who thinks he better than everyone else.

This. There are very practical reasons these jammers are pretty damned illegal.

olapbill:Click Click D'oh: I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us the physics are all wrong and it's not possible to do what this guy was doing... but if we had read the original specs in German we would have known that already.

specs in ze deutsch?

Nice! I'm certain this is one of very few foreign language puns I'll ever get.

I would imagine that his approach would be more distracting than not. If people driving alongside him all of a sudden lost cell service they would all be glued to their phones wondering and attempting to fix whatever happened. Either way forty eight thousand dollars seems appropriate.

It's amazing our species survived before the invention of the mobile phone. All those people dying on the side of the road because they couldn't summon a tow truck, or because the only IT guy who knows how to reset the server was at the cinema.

Because the call wouldn't drop and they couldn't call right back when the man drove past, their phones would explode, killing hundreds, nay, thousands.

Learn to science

I'm glad you are on board with vigilante justice. This is just a douche who thinks he better than everyone else.

This. There are very practical reasons these jammers are pretty damned illegal.

I agree that jammers shouldn't be available to the general public. I just hate the argument that mobile phone use is sacrosanct because of won't somebody please think of the children?!

Wellon Dowd:It's amazing our species survived before the invention of the mobile phone. All those people dying on the side of the road because they couldn't summon a tow truck, or because the only IT guy who knows how to reset the server was at the cinema.

This sounds like the same argument my parents use when attempting to recommend things to me like putting pillows in my kid's crib. They say "well, you survived while having pillows in your crib." And it's true; I did. However, many children did not. Knowledge has improved and led to increased life-expectancy.

Which is to say that, yes, you're correct; cell phones are not the only way to summon help in an emergency and before their invention, lots of people still survived emergencies. But if you're arguing that cell phones do not help save lives, then I have to disagree.

olapbill:Click Click D'oh: I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us the physics are all wrong and it's not possible to do what this guy was doing... but if we had read the original specs in German we would have known that already.

picturescrazy:Walker: I need one of those on the rare occasion that I go to see a movie. Annoying people texting and playing on their phones during the movie is why it's a rare occasion for me.

I've seen someone claim to use one here for that reason. That was ten years ago so hopefully he's stopped or been caught. Yeah the people in the theater are annoying but it's not your place to interrupt service in case of emergency. Especially since you'll effect far more people outside the theater than inside.

I remember years ago when it was becoming a problem in theaters and some places were using jamming devices and IIRC doctors and other people with emergency type jobs complained about it.

TNel:Walker: I need one of those on the rare occasion that I go to see a movie. Annoying people texting and playing on their phones during the movie is why it's a rare occasion for me.

Yeah because I need cellular access to play games on a phone. How about you stop looking at other people and WATCH THE farkING MOVIE! Last movie I went to the volume was so loud I thought my ears were going to bleed, my 4 year old son was holding his hands to his ears. We got up got our money back and left.

Last time I went to a movie, I could hear a family in the back of the theater chattering, playing on their cellphones, and letting their brat talk all of the time. That movie was Winter Solider, so it was not a quiet movie. This may surprise you, but cellphones noises are designed to get your attention even through ambient noise, and can be quite loud in an enclosed, sound-proof room.

Click Click D'oh:I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell us the physics are all wrong and it's not possible to do what this guy was doing... but if we had read the original specs in German we would have known that already.

I finally found one thing (two if you include the challenge authentication method) he was talking about but he never did provide a link to the German specs. The best he mustered up was the patent, which supported none of what he was saying, and then the FCC docs, which corroborated the frequency the authentication.

He then told me to go find the German documents myself. How useful. I wasn't even questioning if he was correct. I just wanted to read the stuff in German.

If you are on the side of the road trying to call a tow truck and someone jams the signal, you can make the call again as soon as the jammer gets out of range, probably a matter of seconds depending on the speed of traffic. It's an inconvenience, but not a huge deal.

Yes, and it's one of the few federal agencies that should have one. When people start dicking around with airline, rail road, and shipping frequencies, seriously bad things can happen. There is a reason the FCC exists, and it's not just to prevent you from seeing tits on TV.